Two artists, two themes, two exhibitions, two venues, but what they have in common is a single project that sees a country, Japan, at the centre. It’s called Light and Darkness the photographic exhibition of the Italian Andrea Lippi and Japanese Katsuhito Nakazato hosted in two cultural sites of Genovail Oriental Art Museum Chiossone ea Gallery of Modern Art. The exhibition – ongoing until January 12, 2025 – relates the two artists’ vision of the relationship between light and darkness in the natural and urban environments of Japan, in order to “to make known and promote the places and contexts of the country, between contemporaneity and tradition, thanks to photography and its expressive capacity”.
The “Light and Darkness” exhibition in Genoa. The light of Andrea Lippi
An exhibition, therefore, divided into two sections: it is associated with Andrea Lippi Light, which finds space in the bright and open spaces of the Chiossone Museum, with black and white photographs taken from 2015 to 2024. Among the works on display is the series Lights ofJapanwhich the artist developed while traveling to Japan several times over the last ten years; from Lights ofJapan the editorial project of the same name was then born, published in 2017, thanks also to the acquaintance with the art historians Noriyuki Kai and Midori Sewake. “Lippi’s photographs recall the white of the paper and the black of the ink of the great Japanese masters of sumie and calligraphy. The shots that freeze moments of everyday life or encounter a human presence, however, convey the nostalgic look that we also find in Ozu Yasujirō’s black and white cinema”explains Aurora Caneparimanager of the Chiossone Museum and curator of the photographic selection. Lippi’s shots enter into dialogue with the ancient works of art exhibited in the museum, giving life to a peculiar dialogue: the photographs represent Tokyo and Kyoto, the sacred Mount Koya, the snow of Shirakawa, for a restitution of the Japan that is traditional and at the same time contemporary.
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Andrea Lippi, Lights of Japan
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Andrea Lippi, Lights of Japan
The “Light and Darkness” exhibition in Genoa. The Darkness of Katsuhito Nakazato
A Katsuhito Nakazato the section is instead entrusted Darkness, with shots exhibited in the cozy and shady spaces of the mezzanine floor of the Gallery of Modern Art: on this occasion the artist presents, for the first time in Italy, a selection of works taken from two of his most important projects, De Chirico’s Shadow e Tōkeiselected by Japanese art historian and curator Miki Shimokawa.
De Chirico’s Shadow is inspired by Giorgio de Chirico: Nakazato saw his works at the age of ten and was struck by the dreamlike and surreal world of the painter, and as an adult he then immortalized in photography scenes that resemble the typical atmospheres of Giorgio de Chirico’s paintings. In 2002 he collected these images in the editorial project Kiriko no machi (Kiriko town) / De Chirico’s Shadow (The shadow of de Chirico), awarded the 2003 Society of Photography Award. “It is interesting to observe Japan seen by a Japanese photographer, inspired by the surreal world of an Italian painter, in a typically Italian context such as that of Villa Serra, in the beautiful parks of Nervi”spiega Miki Shimokawa. “In Nakazato’s photos you cannot recognize the typical characteristics of Japan, on the contrary you have the impression that they portray an otherworldly world”.
She shows “Light and Darkness” to Genova. The project “Tōkei” by Katsuhito Nakazato
Tōkei is a project published in 2006 in which Nakazato reveals an unusual place in Tokyo, Mukojima, a neighborhood that preserves the historical charm of the Showa period, before the Second World War, in a complicated maze of alleys lined with old wooden houses, terraced houses (or peacefully), and laboratories. “Wandering lost on the streets”says Nakazato, “you can perceive the accumulated layers of city life. An original urban landscape now disappeared from Tokyo (indeed from all of Japan) comes back to life, evoking a nostalgic sigh for things that are now just memories”.
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